I can’t tell you how great this makes me feel. I’ve been working on websites and tech stuff for a long time now but don’t often get a chance to prove my skills living in a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere. To have someone like Brian compliment me on what I’ve done is an incredible feeling.

So thanks Brian, not only for the compliments that really made my week ( and pretty much my tech life ), but also for creating the building blocks that I have so much fun playing with.

Check out what he said over on the Revolution showcase.

Hey, maybe now that I’ve been recognized by one of the big guys I’ll be able to charge more than $15 an hour? Even change my moto from “Fast Cheap Easy” to “Creative Marketing Solutions”? Yeah… Didn’t think so.

Little did I know how much fun I would have. Over the days I got to know some pretty cool people. Jim, a guy who always had a quick comeback and a big smile. Ben and Matt, two brothers from Iowa that have the kind of relationship I hope to have with my own brother when we are at that stage in life. Mike, a guy with more to him than you might think. Lisa, Mike’s wife who has a sense of humor most people only dream of. Plus everyone else who was there that helped make the event worth being part of.

My only regret is the fact I didn’t realize how cool and open these people were sooner. Because of my own insecurities I missed a lot of photo opportunities. Over and over again I saw potentially great photos or had ideas that I thought would be awesome, but I didn’t act on my feelings and thoughts.

Because of this event and my love for photography I came to an epiphany. If I don’t act on my feelings and ideas, my work will suffer and I won’t be able fulfill my potential. If I’m not working at my full potential I’ll never be able to push my skills any further. I’ll be stuck with all the average photographers, taking the same pictures as them. Too afraid to go any further, too insecure to ask for what I want. I won’t ever get the shot I really want, and I’ll spend the years regretting my work. I can’t let that happen, I’d rather quit right now.

So… I went for the Jelly Beans, I stayed for the fun, and I came back with a new outlook on life.

Below are a few shots, and a link to the flickr set.

I promise next time I won’t hold back.

Carson City Event Link

I’m talking about The Willits Shakespeare Festival. An event for kids to come and be kids and for adults to marvel at the passion and talent of The Willits Shakespeare Company’s young actors and actresses. The kids actors and actresses in the play were brilliant, funny, and more entertaining than any reality TV show or sitcom. Even when the lights failed and the tent went black they didn’t lose a step, like true professionals they went on with the show. Besides the play their was also a balloon toss with people from the event as the main targets. Any kid that wanted could pick up a balloon and throw it at the targets, putting a huge smile on everyone’s faces.

The online dictionary describes being progressive as “Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods” and I can’t think of anything more progressive than putting on an event for kids to have fun and feel good about themselves.

Below are some shots of the event.

I setup a flickr page for the event which you can get to by clicking here. I’ve also enabled the print function, so if your a family member and their are some photos you want copies of you can have them printed through flickr’s photo printing services.